Eureka, I found it!

I should acknowledge up front that the discovery I'll announce in this entry is likely to be earth-shattering mainly only to yours truly. It is something I had been searching for for quite some time, but had begun to suspect did not exist, so it's a relief to me that I finally found it. But since it suits a need that is peculiar to my own fitness ideas and program, what I've finally found is bound to constitute a ho-hum moment for most others. But, hey, this is my blog about my fitness pursuits, so I can exult in whatever I want, right?

Anyway, anyone who's read my previous blog entries will know that I've been on the lookout for an alternative upper-body workout. When I began looking for a good upper-body workout in the wake of my initial upper-body fitness forays which had been centering around using the Soloflex, I discovered the upper-body workout segments from the P90X regime. I excerpted the four P90X workouts that concentrated on the upper-body and began using them last fall in a twice-weekly, two-week rotation.

While I generally "enjoyed" (with such enjoyment as can be gotten from enduring these rather grueling workouts) the P90X exercises and learned a bit more about fitness from them, I found them too rigorous for my fitness needs throughout most of the year. I decided fairly early on that those workouts, though they could fit into our overall regimen, should be restricted to a certain segment of the year, and that during the rest of the year I needed to use something a little less strenuous.

So I started checking out other Tony Horton exercise regimes, thinking I'd be bound to find something that was less rigorous but that provided the needed focus on upper-body strengthening. After a lot of looking and sampling I settled on two segments from two similar regimes: one segment came from the Power 90 routine (circuit 3-4 sculpt); the other was from the Power 90 Masters series (circuit 5-6 sculpt). These were a bit shorter than the P90X routines we'd been doing (about 40 minutes as opposed to 55 minutes) and contained a good deal of upper-body strengthening exercises. We started using one each of these for our twice-weekly strength-training sessions.

But these routines also contained a few lower-body exercises, which I didn't really want in our routine (we use cycling for lower-body strengthening, as I've stated previously). So, these were not the perfect fit but, as I began to presume, might be about the closest I could find.

Well, recently I decided to do a little further searching and, lo and behold, I finally found the thing I'd been looking for for several months: a Tony Horton routine that was comparatively short and that focuses exclusively on upper body. It's from the Power Half Hour series, a segment called "Arm Toner."


This routine is really just the thing I'd been looking for to use during our more "relaxed" portion of the fitness year. We'll want to have a portion of the year when we're not totally forsaking upper-body fitness, but are doing just enough to keep the muscles limber and not turning to flab. It's also nice to work up at least a little sweat exercising the upper body.

So why is this routine such a great find? Well, it fills the bill nicely in terms of the length of the workout--exactly one half hour. Another nice feature is that there are no rep counts: you just perform a given exercise for a set amount of time--I think it's one or two minutes--then move on to the next exercise. I think you do two sets of most exercises--I've only viewed the whole routine once so I have not yet figured out its structure. But from what I've seen so far, this should fit really nicely into our fitness pursuits.

I managed to find a copy of just this routine on Amazon for a little under $7.00, shipping included--so the price was definitely right, too. I should mention on that note that the whole Power Half Hour regime actually consists in five or so different sessions and that the Arm Toner session is only one of the five. But, as was the case with other Tony Horton regimes, there's only one segment of Power Half Hour that really interests me.

It might sound like I'm turning this blog into some kind of promotion for everything Tony Horton puts out. I have to admit that I generally like the upper-body routines he's put together and that they're easy to follow. Another virtue of his programs is that they require very little in the way of equipment. Owing to this desgin feature these workouts incorporate a fair amount of calisthenics or bodyweight exercises--another big plus in my view. In my defense, I do have in mind in the longer term, once I've got more experience with upper-body fitness, creating my own routines. But, it seems for now there's not a very good way to dodge the accusation that I'm promoting his materials.

As for how we'll use the new Power Half Hour routine, I'm still deciding on that. At the moment I envision switching over to this for our twice-weekly strength-training sessions some time after that start of the new year. We'll probably stick with that until cycling season hits--say in April or maybe May.

On that note, I've been saying for some time now that I want a less rigorous upper-body workout specifically for the cycling season--so that our strength-training won't interfere with our preferred form of fitness, cycling. Well, I'm reconsidering where best in the fitness year more rigorous vs. less rigorous upper-body workouts belong. What I'm actually thinking at the moment is that we might cut our strength training down to once a week during the cycling season, but that the workout we would do during that part of the year will be an intense one. On that scenario, we'd do something like our modified P90X on Wednesdays (currently our rest day), while Mondays and Fridays (our current strength-training days) would be days off. That would provide the advantage of giving us rest days both before and after our most intense cycling days--Saturdays and Sundays. And our less intense cycling days--Tuesdays and Thursdays--would sandwich our strength-training day. On that scenario, our modified P90X would be a four-week cycle, and we'd do the cycle something like 4 or 5 times over the course of the bicycling season.

As the cycling season is winding down, say in October or so, we'd go back to our modified Power 90 strength-training regime, resuming our two-day-per-week strength-training schedule. This is all tentative and represents my thinking at the moment. Rest assured I'll be posting about whatever regime we end up adopting.

At some point I plan to list the exercises along with the structure of all the strength-training routines we do. So that's on tap for a future blog entry. I'm also thinking of offering my critique on the latest beachbody fitness hype--called Insanity (which I'm thinking, in my facetious way, of renaming to Stupidity). Look for those topics to be covered in future entries.

Slow breathing exercises for lowering blood pressure

This post will be about something I just discovered by researching an ad I saw today. I saw an ad for what seemed like a really overpriced device that was claimed to be a non-medicinal way to lower blood pressure. The claims made, as is typical with such products, were dramatic. But in this case it did seem like they had some legitimate medical studies to back up some of their claims about the device. So I decided to look into the matter a little further. As usual, before I can present the information I found, I'll have to provide some background that's important to my interest in the product I've mentioned.

As an aside and before going into greater depth on my findings, I have blogged previously about how one of the key factors precipitating my current fitness endeavors was high blood pressure. Though I was not particularly inactive, was not overweight, nor did I fit any of the other typical profiles for those prone to high blood pressure or hypertnesion, my blood pressure was definitely well out of the normal range. And this was certainly having its negative effects--most notably it would keep me from sleeping on occassion due to a nasty headache that could only be relieved by assuming an upright (non-prone) position.

Things reached a point where something definitely needed to be done. The initial course of action, in consultation with my physician, was to begin taking a prescription medication (hydrochlorothiazide [HZ hereafter], a diuretic), which brought some immediate relief. But I wanted a longer-term solution that was non-medicinal, if possible. So I decided to get more regular about exercise--hence the current blog.

I should mention here that, from the time I started taking this medication I began experimenting with reducing dosage--from a full 25 mg tablet per day to half a tablet. I seemed to get the same desirable effect from a half tablet as I did from a full one but on my doctor's advice (he was far from being any kind of athlete, by the way) I decided to take a full tablet each day.

The exercise did, indeed, seem to have an effect on blood pressure readings. During the first year on HZ I found that, when I did really strenuous aerobic exercise like hard bicycle riding lasting an hour or more, I would get very light-headed and feel as though I might pass out--and could even have some distorted vision. I suspected that the HZ might be the culprit, and that it might be making my blood pressure too low. So I decided to measure my blood pressure after some of these hard rides to see if it was, in fact, too low.

Sure enough, at those times when I measured blood pressure after a strenuous ride my blood pressure was dangerously low--like in the 89 over 56 range. So I decided to experiment with decreasing HZ intake.

At first, I went back to the half tablet dosage. Despite the lowered dosage, the light-headedness and other symptoms associated with HZ intake and strenuous exercise persisted.

I next decided to try not taking any HZ at all on days when we would go for bike rides. That helped, and the light-headedness I had been feeling essentially went away. Since my blood pressure seemed much closer to normal, i.e., a little below hypertension range, even without taking the HZ a few days per week, I decided to experiment further by ceasing to take it altogether. Thus, during much of the 2008 cycling season (roughly June through August of '08) I did not take any HZ and my blood pressure nonetheless mostly stayed below the hypertnesion range (blood pressure seemed to vary from about 125-136 over 72-87).

After the cycling season that year I began to experience some of the symptoms I previously had (occassional headaches exacerbated by being in the prone position) and that I associated with elevated blood pressure, so I once again resumed taking the HZ. Then, the 2009 cycling season rolled around.

On some early rides during that season I forgot to forego the HZ dose and felt the same negative effects I had felt the previous season (light-headedness, feeling faint, some distortions of vision). At first I tried what I had done the previous season, viz., not taking the medication at all on days when we planned to ride. During the 2009 season I found, however, that even though I did not take any HZ the day of a ride, I would nonetheless have the negative symptoms I associated with the medication when it's combined with strenuous exercise. I once again decided to cease taking the HZ altogether.

That brings me pretty much to the current post. I have been off HZ for the most part since about April of 2009. I have had a couple of the headache episodes, particularly over recent weeks when we took a break from or had cut way down on our exercise regime, since that time. I even decided about a month ago that I would probably need to start taking HZ regularly again over this winter, and resumed taking a daily dosage.

I reversed that decision, however, when--having taken HZ that day--during one of our strength training sessions two or three weeks ago, I again experienced the light-headedness that usually results from combining HZ with strenuous exercise. I should mention a couple of details in this regard: first, I do not recall previously experiencing light-headedness in connection with our strength training--despite having taken HZ on the day on which I was doing said training; second our strength training regime is pretty strenuous (even somewhat aerobic), though it lasts usually only about 40 minutes.

My current hypothesis is that my body has become more acclimated to regular exercise and correspondingly more sensitive to the HZ: therefore, I should not use HZ with any regularity, instead taking a dose only in limited circumstances--such as when what seems to me a blood-pressure-related headache occurs.

So, the last time I took any HZ was probably 2 or 3 weeks ago. And I feel fine for the most part. I measured my blood pressure yesterday and, though it could be better, it was still below the hypertension range (it was 138/84).

Cut, finally, to today's blog entry: the aforementioned non-medicinal means of lowering blood pressure--which I actually started today. While browsing some news today, I ran across an item which, given what I've said above, piqued my interest: a device that claimed to lower, non-medicinally, blood pressure. I wanted to investigate.

They're fairly forthcoming with information about this device on their web site, and they give a good basic overview of how it works. It simply teaches you to slow your breathing by measuring your current breathing rate, then gradually lowering it by having you breathe in unison with certain sounds, to a particular level for a set interval.

Sounds simple enough, and it does seem widely accepted in the medical community that exercises that lower the breathing rate for a time do affect blood pressure. But should such a device, about the size of a CD player, really cost around $300? Couldn't the enterprising individual (aka yours truly) approximate closely enough what the device is doing using items already at hand?

Turns out the enterprising individual can do this. I've just proved that to myself and also proved, gauging by the effects I felt afterward, that this sort of exercise does help.

I should mention to start with that I learned a fair amount about the product, what it does, and what are the more cost-effective alternatives, by reading reviews of the device at amazon (see those reviews here). A great deal more information can be found by googling, as, for example, these results will indicate.

From what I'd read, the positive effects on blood pressure offered by this device could be gotten simply by lowering your breathing rate to something like 4.5 to 6 breaths per minute (BrPM hereafter so as to distinguish this from beats per minute [BPM], and acronym I've used previously in this blog) for a period of 10-15 minutes per day. One of the key breathing tactics for these "exercises" that is stressed on sites I found is that breathing out (exhalation) should take about twice as long as breathing in (inhalation). It is also said that listening to calming music while doing the exercise is helpful--which, of course, makes sense

In any case I decided if I've got a wristwatch with a second counter (or a second hand), I can do this right here and now. So I tried it, pretty much right on the spot.

Well, I found out first of all that I apparently don't need any device to help me lower my breathing rate. During the first minute, without any special strain or discomfort, I breathed 4.5 times--which seems to be about the lowest BrPM rate that is recommended for people using this technique. I simply relaxed, breathed slowly and deeply, and counted breaths using my fingers, over a 15 minute period. By the end of that 15 minute period, my average minutely rate worked out to about 3.8 BrPM (57 breaths in 15 minutes).

On finishing this exercise I felt great. I felt relaxed and rested--like some inner tension had been released. I haven't measured my blood pressure yet but I'm eager to see whether there has been any effect yet. I'll probably walk over to a nearby pharmacy later today and check my blood pressure just to see.

Anyway, even if regular use of this exercise doesn't lower my blood pressure significantly I think I'll work it into my daily routine. From what I've seen so far it's a great way to relax. I definitely need that--not only from time to time when I feel stressed, but every day before bed. Seems like it could really help with some sleep issues I've been having.

So my plan at this point is to do this exercise daily for 15 minutes right before bedtime. I will also use it in selective circumstances when I'm under stress--like before and/or after a lecture I'm delivering, when I get angry or upset about something, or when I'm feeling generally stressed or anxious. I'm very eager to see what will be the effects and will definitely be posting about them in the future.

Charting fitness progress: necessary?

In this entry, want to explore the necessity of fitness charting, i.e., of keeping various charts, devising graphs, or even writing a fitness diary. I will play devil's advocate here since I do not myself do such charting and feel I have good reasons for it. But you are not me and you may have good reasons for charting your fitness pursuits. I will later spell out some scenarios where I think fitness charting could be helpful.

Many fitness instructors and a lot of fitness literature harp on the theme of tracking your fitness. You are told to keep track of (write down) how many repetitions you did on a given day with how much weight, how you felt that day, and so forth. Diet diaries are likewise often encouraged. Tony Horton, as a case in point, keeps stressing the importance of keeping such charts as he instructs the P90X participants.

I considered doing something like this when I started my strength-training regime about 1.5 years ago but decided against it. I decided that the most important thing to me is not how much weight I lifted how many times, but rather how I felt after the workout: did I work up a good sweat?; did my arm muscles tremble from the strain I'd made?; did I notice pumped muscles when looking in the mirror afterwards? If those sorts of criteria were met, I decided, I'd had a good workout and my health was benefiting. That would be the only form of charting I'd need, I decided.

That's really the rule of thumb I've been following in my strength-training workouts since and if I've made some mistake in adopting that approach, I have yet to find out what it is. I've developed some muscle tone, lost a little fat (didn't have much to lose as you'll know if you've read my previous entries) and felt that my health has benefited. I really don't see what thing of value charting might have added.

That said, I am able to keep track of certain numbers in my head. I know, for example, about how many push-ups, chin-ups, bicycle crunches, or chair dips I can do at maximum. I also have a good idea of how much weight I should use for 15 repetitions of, say, bicep curls or "lawn mowers." In some cases I can remember how many I could do the first few times I tried these exercises as opposed to how many I can do now. I don't know, maybe there are folks that can't keep those kinds of numbers in their heads and who could therefore benefit from charting all that?

My suspicion, though, is that except below a certain level of fitness, these charts are used mainly for vanity purposes. And I think they simultaneously play into the marketing strategy of commercial exercise regimes like P90X: if you can get people comparing numbers, you'll stimulate consumer competitions in connection with your product. That's the way another line of business I know fairly well--computer sales--works: oh, he's got a 3 gigahertz, but I've only got a 2.9 gigahertz so I better go out and buy a new one so I'll have something better.

The upshot of the position I'm voicing on the matter of fitness charting, then, is that it's not crucial to getting more healthy or to maintaining health. Certainly for me, as someone already in reasonable shape and with no need to lose any weight, this has been true.

That said, I do think there's a place for fitness charting. My guess is that, if someone is really out of shape and so has to start off their fitness pursuits really slowly, they could get discouraged early on by an apparent lack of progress. Perhaps, going back over their charts, they would come to see that, although they're still fat, they are doing more repetitions and/or listing more weight than when they started. And this could help sustain their dedication to exercise. I suppose, given the state of American society--which now seems to tend largely toward obesity--this scenario could apply to a majority of people looking for fitness solutions.

In this same vein, I know that keeping a diary can be helpful to dieting. My wife finally got serious about dieting and exercise and has dropped about 40 pounds and she records her food intake religiously. It does seem to have helped her.

Another scenario where fitness charting could be helpful is in the case of professional athletes who are trying to better their performance. Being in peak form is their job, after all, and the more effectively they can do that, or any competitive edge they may attain, the more enhanced will be their professional existence.

In the final analysis, then, fitness charting has its uses. I think as a general rule, the more out-of-shape one is when embarking on a fitness regime, the more helpful it is likely to be. For average folks that are not professional athletes and that are not badly out of shape or have already been doing fitness for a time, it's quite optional and is likely to do little or nothing for them in terms of health. In these cases, it is usually done either out of vanity or some sort of obsessiveness.

Your thoughts on this topic?